BURRELL TOWNSHIP — During the critical summer months for blood donation, WyoTech held its quarterly blood drive with The American Red Cross on July 1.

The school’s blood drive netted 292 donations, or more than 40 percent of the daily collection needs of the 100-county Greater Alleghenies Blood Services Region of the Red Cross, Jocelyn Milby, local Red Cross donor recruitment representative, said in a release.

She added that WyoTech held its first blood drive with the Red Cross in 2006 and over the course of 26 blood drives has provided more than 4,000 donations.

“We can’t thank WyoTech students, faculty and staff enough for their help in ensuring hospital patients receive the blood they need,” said John Hagins, CEO of the Greater Alleghenies Blood Services Region.

“Nationally, blood donations at high school and college blood drives account for as much as 20 percent of donations during the school year, and about 30 percent of our region’s donations annually, but donations at these drives can drop by more than 80 percent when school is out for the summer. We thank everyone at WyoTech for being an outstanding exception.”

“Students were very willing to help in any way that they could,” Milby noted in the release. “If they were unable to donate they were at the drive helping and volunteering their time. I was very impressed with how polite and respectful all the students were the day of the drive and during signups. They took pride in the blood drive.”